Ian Austin – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Austin on 2015-10-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the case for enabling schools to pay an allowance to school governors in recognition of their time, expertise and service.

Nick Gibb

The government recognises the crucial role of governors and values their expertise and dedication. As we move towards an increasingly school-led system, governance will need to be more effective with more highly skilled people governing groups of individual schools. The government, however, remains committed to the principle of voluntary service for governors and we have no plans to enable governors to be paid beyond the specific circumstances set out in section 7.6 of the Governors’ Handbook. This handbook can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/governors-handbook–3

Academy trusts are independent charities. Their governors are therefore also charity trustees who must comply with Charity Law. This means that they can only receive payment for carrying out trustee duties if this payment is specifically allowed by the academy’s governing document or has express authorisation from the Charity Commission. Any change to allow payment to trustees would need Charity Commission authorisation.

Governors in maintained schools and academies can receive allowances or expenses to cover costs they have incurred because of serving as a governor.

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